Recommend your favorite kids music

[Anonymous]

We're starting to build a music library for our almost 1 yr old DD. Please recommend music that wont drive us crazy having to listen to it over and over again.

We usually listen to our music and she loves it, but as she gets a little oder, we want her to have some of he rown stuff too.

Also, if you have any suggestions for cheap or free kids music, PLEASE share them.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

We like the 'We Might Be Giants' kids music - numbers, letters, silly stuff, but I can listen to it and it is fun.

Free music: go to the library and rent some music CD's or tapes. They usually have a huge selection, and usually the rental period is several weeks. If you feel comfortable doing so you can also just copy the tapes at home.

[Anonymous]

Anything from Jacks Big Music house is tolerable. Lisa Loeb, Laurie Berkener, They Might Be Giants (7 8 9), Andrew Byrd. Buy Buy Baby also has a great selection of kids music on dvd that is not painful or goofy. Can't remember the artists off the top of my head but the cds might be on their website.

Also, our 19 month old is a huge fan of Frank Sinatra, Led Zepplin (thanks to Shrek) and Irish drinking music.

[Anonymous]

We're music snobs and we happen to love Laurie Berkner's CDs. You can also watch some of the music videos for free on YouTube. I think they're from Noggin.

Another good bet is Jack Johnson. He did the soundtrack to the Curious George movie, which is great. And his other CDs seem very kid-friendly, too.

[Anonymous]

Our kids loved listening to story CDs by Jim Weiss. I did too! They learned Greek myths, Shakespeare, folktales, etc. in the car.

[Anonymous]

I second the rec for Laurie Berkner and Jack Johnson.

An adult band that kids tend to love is the Beatles. They have some really fun songs that kids get into.

[Anonymous]

I love the Baby Loves Jazz cd as well as the For the Kids collections as the songs are by contemporary "adult" musicians likes Maroon 5, Dave Matthews, etc.

[Anonymous]

anything in the Music Today or Kindermusik series

[Anonymous]

At that age, we were all about Philadelphia Chickens. But now, at age 4, DD happened to hear "Yellow Submarine" on the real radio in the car and loved it. So I bought the Beatles CD and now she goes around belting, "Lucy in the Sky-y with Di-i-amonds" and talks about tangerine trees and marmalade skies. Uh oh, is that too trippy?!

[Anonymous]

OP here - Beatles is currently her primary source of music as we are big fans, so I'm glad to hear it suggested. We just figure she is entitled to some of her own music as well.

[Anonymous]

We also like Laurie Berkner and music from Jack's Big Music Show. Recently we have been listening to Frances England's Fascinating Creatures, which I really like (and DS, 22 months, also seems to enjoy )

[Anonymous]

DD likes Putumayo - world music. We just listen to different kinds of music to try to expose her to different genres. Doesn't need to be "kids" music necessarily.

[Anonymous]

Ralph's World
Peter Himmelman
Gunnar Madsen
Sandra Boynton

But what my toddler really loves is Johnny Cash. You're never too young to learn about shooting a man in Reno just to watch him die, I guess.

[Anonymous]

The Putumayo Playground series of world music is fantastic. They are adult songs but with clean lyrics and subjects. We used "World Playground" to dance our son to sleep his first three months. Also fun is the "Hawaiian Playground" album.

[Anonymous]

The French Playground is good too.